My Novel, If I Never — which is due to be published on the 29th of August — is now available for pre-order.

It is available through Waterstone’s — branches and online — and probably other stores (haven’t had chance to check, yet, but will definitely be available through other outlets very shortly.) It can, naturally, also be pre-ordered through Amazon.co.uk. I’m listed on Amazon.com, but not sure when it will be available there. Will let you know as soon as I do — though overseas customers may be interested to know, if they don’t already, that they can still buy through Amazon.co.uk.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their good wishes, congratulations, help and encouragement — both whilst writing my novels and, especially, during the past couple of months. The promotional ideas and support from friends on Twitter, Facebook and, of course, here has been and continues to be invaluable. Your generosity and friendship is appreciated, even though I may not get the chance to tell you quite so often as I would like. Thank you.

I decided to ask my friends and followers on Twitter to set the writing related theme for today’s blog post. The original idea was to go with the first question, but within a minute or so I’d already received two questions on the subject of “inspiration”. Jacqui (@hopefulauthor) asked: “What inspired you to write?” whilst Cat (@carocat) added, “What has inspired you to write this week?”

Two questions I’m going to do my best to address in this post!

Inspiration is something writers talk about a great deal, and it possibly means slightly different things to different people. But for me, inspiration isn’t a single moment when a light bulb goes on or lightning strikes. It doesn’t come from “the ether”. It isn’t external and it isn’t sudden.

The need to write came to me quite early. Having never been able to walk — and even though I’d always had an active life with my wonderful parents, friends and family — I’d always relied upon my imagination. I was a typical kid, in that respect, but I think it’s fair to say that my storytelling skills no doubt started back then, when I played with my toys on the living room carpet in front of the television. As my reading skills developed, I occasionally read children’s novels and at the age of seven I started writing my first novel about a headless horseman. I don’t think it ever progressed beyond the first paragraph, but the dream was there, even then.

In my teens, I moved on to reading horror fiction — the Omen trilogy, Ray Russell’s Incubus and, of course, Stephen King. And in among these horror gems I inevitably discovered some real stinkers. You know the type. Killer crabs on the rampage, piranha fish with bad attitudes, that kind of thing. I read them and, with a sneer, dismissed them, already nurturing the vague and slightly arrogant notion that I could do better.

I didn’t start writing seriously, however, until I hit twenty. I’d had to leave sixth form college a few years earlier due to illness and, after trying my hand at painting, drawing etc, I decided that I would embark upon my first novel. I knew that it was something I could do when I felt able, and it struck me as the perfect occupation for someone in a wheelchair!

My first novel was, naturally, a horror novel about a telekinetic girl called Dawn — a complete rip-off of Carrie, it was utterly appalling! The first agent I sent the completed manuscript to (single spaced, calamity of calamities!) told me that I had “a lot to learn about the narrative form”. She was right. I knew it even then — but it didn’t dent my ambition in the least. It was, after all, my first novel, and as I started my second, still well aware that it wasn’t that good, I could nonetheless see an improvement.

I remembered the words of my then literary hero — King — and thought that, just maybe, he was right. No matter how little talent you have, if you read and write regularly you will improve. So, I kept writing and found that, even whilst I yearned for publication, that stopped being was it was about. Doorways opened. I found myself writing novels I never would have imagined myself capable of, quickly moving away from horror into more literary/mainstream realms, with the occasional experimental splurge.

As for what keeps me writing — what’s inspired me this week… well, having If I Never coming out later in the year has definitely spurred me on, but there’s more to it, I think, than that; I’m very aware that I’m now writing some of the best work I’ve ever produced. That sounds incredibly immodest, but I think it’s a really important that we can acknowledge our weaknesses and strengths. I’ve addressed many of the problems my writing had — one by one, year by year — and I now feel that the energy I take from knowing that I’m doing the job well is what keeps me going.

Writing is a tough job, but it’s immensely satisfying. Ultimately, this is where I now find my inspiration.

Life in my little corner of Paradise has been rather busy of late. Creatively, I’ve been on something of a high — As Morning Shows the Day all but writing itself (the benefit of meticulous outlining, people), the growth of character and plot, the language, feeling more natural than anything I’ve written previously. Naturally, this probably has a great deal to do with the fact that I’ve now had If I Never accepted; having a group of people like those at Legend have such faith in one’s work… well, it just makes me want to write more… and more… and… well, you get the picture.

Things are moving fairly steadily with If I Never. Editorial work should be starting soon and I believe work has begun on the cover design (or it will be fairly shortly, at least.) Very exciting.

I’ve also been looking at different ways to promote myself and my work. My disability inevitably means that some of the promotional opportunities that other writers have simply won’t be possible for me and, so, I intend to play to my strength and do as much promotional work via the Internet as I can.

With this in mind, I’ve now set up a Facebook group. I already have a profile on Facebook, of course, but I’m not entirely comfortable with allowing complete strangers access to this. The group seemed an ideal solution. If you’re at all interested, you can join by clicking on this link. (There isn’t much going on at the moment but that should change in a day or two.)

Of course, not everyone likes Facebook and, so, on the recommendation of a friend in the know, I’m also reopening my MySpace profile (click here.) These on top of my blog and mailing list (not to mention Twitter, where I can often be found holding court and generally making a prat of myself) should provide enough options for the time being. If you have a preferred platform that I haven’t considered, however, please feel free to suggest it. I’ll appreciate it.

Finally, I’m also looking for websites/blogs that might be interested in interviewing me — perhaps to talk about how I came to sell If I Never or, maybe, other aspects of writing. If you know of such a site, or if you’re a blogger or online magazine editor who’s interested, please give me a shout.